16 Confessions Of People Who Ditched Their Partner At The Altar

Your wedding is supposed to be the happiest day of your whole life. You plan the whole day in advance for months, sometimes years, and hopefully, you get a day that looks a little like the wedding you wanted.

Unfortunately, not every wedding ends happily. Sometimes the couple breaks up before they make it to the altar, and as much as we want to say that those guys have it the worst, they have it much better than those couples who found out that the relationship was over on the day of the wedding. Even then, if the couple breaks up amicably on that day, it's one thing. It's quite another to be standing at the altar waiting for your future spouse to show up... only they never do.

We found some of the craziest runaway bride and groom stories ever, and while the stories are really short thanks to the Whisper format, even a few words can paint a pretty tragic picture. From the man who left his bride at the altar only to start a family with her cousin, to the woman who realized she was in love with her maid of honor; these stories are far from our picture-perfect wedding day. While some of these runaway stories end happily, not all of them do. And there are still more that we don't know the rest of. Here are some of the craziest runaway bride and groom confession stories on the Internet.

16 At Least She Went On Vacation?

I'm a little confused here. So...hopefully she had a good vacation? Honestly, the one thing that really bums me out about Whisper is that there's no opportunity for hearing about any context for these stories. Why did she panic? Did she book a new flight and vacation for herself and her friend or did she take this friend on her actual honeymoon? Is this even a woman, or is it a man marrying another man or just a guy who can’t spell? Where did they even go on vacation? Did she/he and their friend get together on the trip, which is why the confession is warranted? Regardless, I hope all involved are okay now. Running out on a wedding can be really rough for all parties, including the runner.

15 That's Got To Sting...

Well, that's one way to run out on a wedding! Now, I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall during this relationship. Think about how awkward this must have been for everyone involved! This love story, in a nutshell, is basically about a man who falls in love with a woman (it could be a man, but we’re going to assume this is a woman for simplicity's sake) and gets engaged to her. However, as soon as he meets her cousin as they’re preparing for the wedding, they fall in love. Another scenario could be that the couple broke up right before the wedding that he didn’t really get to plan, then some years later married her cousin without realizing that that was her cousin. Regardless, we hope it worked out for them because it seems like a little more drama than it’s worth.

14 Someone Get This Family On Jerry Springer!

This seems like something that belongs on a daytime talk show, to be honest. This is the kind of story that people would take a minute before totally believing. This is also the kind of thing that can implode whole families, not just the one or two couples involved in this. Even if the stepmother was single, it’s still a horrendous thing to do, sleeping with your step-daughter's fiance. That being said, if the stepmother was still married to the bride’s father, that’s even worse because that could potentially ruin the whole family. For one, it could ruin her father’s marriage if the relationship was closed. If the relationship was open, there might be a chance that the bride’s father knew what was going on, which would just be weird and disturbing. Regardless, this bride was smart to leave him at the altar!

13 Don't Mess With Meds Before Your Wedding...

To be fair to this person, they might not have known what lorazepam might do to them, or they might have just had a bad reaction to it. I will admit that I didn't really know what Lorazepam would do until I Googled it, so I could see an anxious person about to get married taking it uneducated. However, the fact that this person was so nervous about possibly getting cold feet that they did a preemptive, chemical strike against it is a good sign that they already had cold feet and needed to make some major decisions. On top of that, why wouldn’t a wedding party go out of their way to reassure this person that they should get married? Why would they let this person take lorazepam on their wedding day?! Why do I feel like some “friend” passed this person this drug just to see what would happen?

12 You Couldn't Borrow A Suit?!

Okay, this is just baffling to me. There are a lot of options here apart from straight up abandoning your fiancee at the altar. For one thing, I have to assume that you have a wedding party/friends/family that are in your size range and could possibly lend you a suit. You might not match the rest of the wedding, but you'd be there. You could have also gone suit-less, wearing a nice pair of pants and a button-down or something. Or, and this would have been the smartest choice: you could have gone down to your local department store and bought a suit! Sure, it would be money that could have gone somewhere else, but I'm sure not showing up to your wedding because of a suit that wasn't cleaned on time is a much bigger waste of money.

11 This Is Very Good Advice

This is honestly solid advice. We don't know anything about this person's former relationship, if it's a past relationship, to begin with. However, what we do know is that this person knows what it's like to be in a situation that they feel trapped in. Weddings are honestly really final. Even if you're a person who's pretty cavalier about divorce, marriage is an important thing, both on a societal level and individually, and it's the backbone of many families. That's not a decision you should go into without knowing what you're doing. You might love your fiancé very much, but sometimes love just isn't enough to sustain a marriage.

10 You Do Know There's Such A Thing As Adventure In A Marriage, Right?

This honestly makes no sense to me. This guy (I'm assuming this is a guy) seems to think that marriage means just straight up settling down and having thirty children right away when that couldn't be further from the truth. Honestly, all that really changes is that you've made a lifelong commitment to the other person. Yeah, that's a pretty big change, but other than that, the two of you are the same people. You can very well have the same adventures you used to before you were married, and if anything it might even be easier to have those adventures when you're married because the two of you are emotionally and legally a team. I think this guy just had a bad idea of what marriage is and let that cloud his judgment. He probably lost out on a great girl, too.

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9 Yeah, That Is Pretty Bad Timing...

This is a good reason to leave someone but at the altar? It probably would have been a bit nicer to pull the future spouse aside and tell them that you might be gay instead of running out on the wedding and leaving a note. Like, as much as your ex might support you in your endeavors, they're going to be really messed up about being left at the altar, especially if they didn't do anything to deserve that. That being said, congratulations to this person for realizing what was going on with themselves and having the guts to get out of that situation before things got legally binding. It would have been far worse had they gotten married and a lot more emotionally devastating.

8 That's A Pretty Terrible Thing To Lie About...

This is...kind of awful. For one thing, five years?! You're telling me you didn't realize you didn't love him for five years, and only once you put on the wedding dress and were getting ready to actually go to your wedding did you realize you didn't love him? I call malarkey, lady. On top of that, you kept the dress?! And you're lying to your current boyfriend about the circumstances of your ruined wedding just because you don't want to look bad to him? This is outright deceitful, and I think the reason she's doing it this way is because she knows she did her ex-fiancé dirty and she doesn't want to explain it to the new guy. I could even see her leaving the new guy in a similar way.

7 You'd Think A Member Of The Bridal Party Would Have Explained The Situation...

This is one of those situations where I'd immediately be questioning the bridal party. For one thing, what did the bride eat that gave her food poisoning on her wedding day? Once she ate it and started greeting sick, did no one think to call the groom and let him know "hey, your fiancee is really sick and might not make the wedding, you might need to stall everything a bit so we can get her there?" Did nobody pass on that information? I smell something rotten in the state of Denmark, and it isn't this woman's food poisoning. Honestly, I feel like someone in her wedding party sabotaged the wedding in an attempt to ruin the relationship because there's no reason why she should look like a runaway bride in this situation. Hopefully, these two is still okay, because this would be a horrible reason to flush a healthy relationship down the toilet.

6 At Least He Got Out Of The Situation Before He Married Her...

This is one of those realizations that comes on very slowly, kind of like a creeping feeling of dread. Generally, when you get this feeling, you shake it off at first. After all, you love this person: they're not going to do anything to hurt you on purpose. Then the feeling gets worse as they do and you feel more and more like you're walking on eggshells. One wrong move and they'll lash out and make you feel smaller than you ever have, but as long as you toe the line, you'll be okay. That's probably how this man was feeling as he stood in front of the mirror in his wedding tux looking at himself and the person he had become while in his controlling relationship. This is one of the good reasons to run out on a wedding.

5 Why On Earth Would You Do This!?!

This honestly breaks my heart. Let's be clear: your family and friends should at least tolerate your romantic partner. I speak from experience here: a person who raises red flags with nearly everyone you know that cares about you is more likely than most to be bad news. This only counts if their reasons are good ones, by the way. That being said, if you like your fiancé and your family and friends don't have a good reason to dislike him, it doesn't matter what they think. If you love him, you need to stand by your relationship because it's your marriage, not theirs. The fact that she went through the whole planning process, only to dump him on her wedding day because of her family, is really messed up.

4 But There's A Reason Why You Didn't Do It...Right?

Okay, I can see someone who ran away from a wedding getting emotional over wedding shows. You had a failed wedding, and weddings in themselves are emotional, much less failed ones. That being said, if you left your fiancé for no good reason, that's on you. Cold feet is a real thing and can really cloud your judgment, but if you decided that you didn't want to marry your ex, that's a decision you need to own. It's totally valid to not want to marry someone, but it's not fair to act like weddings are the worst and are totally triggering for you because you made a decision that was right for you. After all, you gave yourself the chance to find someone you won't feel bad about marrying.

3 You Know, I'm Happy For Them And All, But Why Didn't She Say Something Earlier?

This is kind of a sweet story, but I feel like this was handled all wrong. For one thing, I have to assume the maid of honor had fallen in love with the bride at some point long before she was going to get married, which is the only real reason why she'd wait so long to say anything. On top of that, the fact that the bride was receptive enough to the maid of honor that she'd leave her fiancé, someone I assume she loved enough to marry without cold feet, shows that the bride would have gone along with it had the maid of honor said something earlier. Why did they wait until the day of the wedding, arguably one of the biggest and most expensive days of the bride and groom's life, to run away together? I mean, I hope they're happy, but they did everyone involved in this wedding dirty.

2 Well, That's Some Terrible Timing!

This is just mean. I mean, it's good that these two didn't get married if the fiancé had feet this cold, but part of me feels like they could have talked about this and called off the wedding a bit earlier, as opposed to an hour before the wedding, when they're presumably dressed up for it already. I can't imagine what it must have been like for this bride to have that conversation, then go and talk to her guests about why the wedding wasn't happening. The would-be groom would also be going through it, but it would kind of be his fault and I figure the people on his side of the wedding would get it. I guess the only consolation for the bride would be that he approached her in person instead of running away and leaving a note.

1 Well, At Least She Won't Be The Incubator For Her Mother In Law's Do Over Kids!

This woman did the right thing. Mothers-in-law can be downright crazy, and if she was pushing the bride right out of her own wedding, there's a good chance that she would have tried pushing her out of her own marriage and even out of being a mother to her future children. Considering that she felt like that the whole time, it stands to reason that her future husband was consistently siding with his mom. Many women have found themselves in marriages where their husbands' mothers were all about trying to take the bride's place in their sons' lives for whatever reasons. For some mothers in law, it's because they're super controlling, and for others, it's because they're downright crazy in some other way. The Marie Barone stereotype exists for a reason, guys: she's real. Thankfully, the bride got out of dodge before she ended up having kids with her husband for him to raise with his mom.